This invention relates to an accessory that attaches to a faucet and delivers water to a bather or bathers in a bath area. Such a bath area may be any sort of vessel like a bathtub, an indoor or outdoor swimming pool, or an outdoor area.
Various accessories that attach to a bathtub faucet and serve to introduce water into a bathtub are known. Some are hand-held; others are mounted on the tub. Examples of such accessories appear in issued patents, many of which date back some one hundred years. In those times, bathtubs were essentially free-standing. Accessories could be made of rigid pipes, and installed on a bathtub without concern for clearances to adjacent walls. Such installations appear to have been intended to be essentially permanent. The accessories were attached directly onto bathtub rims by metal clamps and the like, or they were disposed adjacent the bathtub.
The inventors believe that many of today""s households would enjoy an accessory that could introduce water into a bathtub, if the accessory could be conveniently installed in and removed from a built-in bathtub, and if it avoided the use of rigid metal pipes.
The accessory of the present invention comprises a tubular conduit that is placed around the rim of a bathtub and connected to the faucet. The conduit has outlets at locations along its length. When the faucet is turned on, fresh water is conveyed through the conduit to the outlets where the water leaves the conduit and enters the tub by washing down the sides of the tub in the manner of a waterfall. The conduit is non-metallic and supported by plastic or rubber elements. It can be conveniently installed and removed.
An additional aspect of the invention relates to an accessory that is believed to be especially appealing to children and that can be used not only in a bathtub, but in various bath areas, both indoor and outdoor. A particular embodiment comprises the use of three-dimensional characters who may be familiar to children. Examples of such characters are various animals, especially marine animals like dolphins and fish, and various cartoon and storybook characters.